The application for an international patent PCT/ES 00/00061 of this applicant discloses a plant and a process for a non-stop treatment and packaging of the meat product which sets the main lines of such kind of plant depending on stages or steps of a specific process to be implemented in a plant having a non-stop operation.
The process of the said application for a patent PCT/ES 00/00061 essentially comprises the operations of injecting brine to meat products; macerating such injected meat product submitting it to one or more massaging actions alternating with as many quiescent periods; and packaging the treated meat products and characterized in that such operations are carried out in a plant controlled by a centralized control in a chained and automated way, alternatively on different lots of meat products so that at any moment at least two of such lots of meat products are being simultaneously submitted to one of such operations, times for cleaning the different units and stations of the plant having being provided while other units or stations are operating keeping the plant non-stop operation.
To implement such method, the plant of the application for a patent PCT/ES 00/00061 comprises a station for brine injection to the meat products to be treated, a maceration station for the injected meat products including at least a rotating drum for massaging the injected meat product and a plurality of tanks for the massaged meat products settling connected to drawing means to make them move forwards step by step along a closed path around such rotating drum; and a packaging station for the treated meat product. Such stations are coupled to each other for a non-stop operation, linked by a unit for accumulating and loading the injected meat product in the rotating drum, located between the outlet of such injection station and the inlet of the said maceration station, the said accumulating and loading unit comprises at least a first and a second hoppers; a distributing device for distributing the meat product coming from the injection station alternatively to the said first and second hoppers; a reloading unit located between the said maceration station and the said accumulating and loading unit comprising means for newly transferring the massaged-settled meat product coming from the said quiescent tanks to the said second hopper to be reloaded in the said rotating drum; and a unit for transferring the treated meat product to a feeding hopper (62) of the said packaging station. The plant in addition includes a unit for cleaning the quiescent tanks located at a point of the path after the said unit for transferring the meat product to the packaging station. The plant is controlled by the said computer control centre, which coordinates the steps of such stations and units operation so that at any moment of a plant working cycle at least one of such stations is operating, a time being provided for cleaning each station, unit or part thereof during the said cycle, keeping the plant non-stop operation.
In the said plant, the injected meat product is accumulated by lots alternatively in such first and second hoppers of the accumulating and loading unit. The accumulated lot in one of the hoppers is loaded in the rotating drum and submitted to a massaging operation in it while the other hopper is being loaded with another lot of meat products. The lot massaged within the drum is transferred thereafter to one or several of such quiescent tanks which rotate around the drum. The drum, once it has been emptied can be loaded with a new lot of meat product coming from one of the hoppers while the massaged lot sustains a period at rest in related tanks. Preferably, the plant includes a reloading unit with means for transferring a lot of settled meat product from its related quiescent tanks to the said first and second hoppers, and from it newly in the rotating drum for sustaining a new massaging and settling cycle, and so on. The macerated meat product, at the end of the programmed massaging and settling cycled, is transferred by means of the said transfer unit to the hopper feeding the packaging station while new lots are sustaining prior operations. Thus, the plant has a non-stop operation and it is taken profit of the times when some of the stations, units or parts thereof are idle to hand or automatically wash them.